Nightwing: Rebirth
by I'maChair5050
Summary: Set after the "Forever Evil" story line. With Dick Grayson presumed dead at the hands of the Crime Syndicate, Chicago is left without a defender. That is until a young kid takes up the identity of Nightwing. However, he soon discovers something is afoot when he encounters assassins, secret agents and a new organisation threatening to reduce his city to rubble.
1. From the Ashes

**Chapter 1: From the Ashes**

Dick Grayson

This was the last person that anyone expected.

Sure, he had been a circus performer amongst other things, but...Nightwing? The protector of Chicago and protegé to Batman?

People immediately laughed this theory off whenever anyone brought it up.

But then the Crime Syndicate arrived from Earth-3.

Upon defeating this world's Justice League, the Syndicate promptly captured Nightwing and took control of Arkham Asylum where, during a worldwide broadcast, removed the mask from his face, revealing his identity to the world.

It is unknown to the general public what happened after that day, however many theories have floated around since then.

Some said that Nightwing had headed off to Earth-3. Others said that he'd simply retired as Nightwing and was hiding away. Some even went as far as to say that he'd been killed.

People hoped that the latter wasn't the case for their hero.

However, just a couple of days after the Crime Syndicate had revealed his identity, news surfaced that Dick Grayson had been found dead, having died of unspecific causes.

Some would argue that Nightwing had been nothing short of a criminal, going against the very legal system to police the streets of the city.

However, most would simply argue that Nightwing had been a great inspiration for the people of Chicago and a great source of justice.

Needless to say, when Nightwing eventually disappeared from the public eye, Chicago didn't want to forget about him.

Not too long after Grayson's death, the city of Chicago erected a statue in his memorial.

On it was a small plaque that read:

_In memory of Richard "Dick" Grayson_

_1990-2014_

_Forever the hero of Chicago_

However, whilst it seemed that the city longed for another hero, the scum of the city seemed to think otherwise.

Not too long after Nightwing disappeared, the crime rate in the city slowly began to rise to where it had been before Nightwing had arrived.

Alongside that, dozens of questions surrounded Grayson's death, particularly as to how his legal guardian, Bruce Wayne, was involved.

Many keen eyed members of the public were quick to point out that Grayson had been the original Robin, the young ward to Gotham City's legendary vigilante known as "The Batman".

Not too long after this connection was made, someone was brave enough to ask the question: Are Bruce Wayne and Batman both the same person?

Fortunately for the caped crusader, people laughed this off, claiming that Wayne's playboy attitude would be something that the dark knight would frown upon, but at the same time, they could see the connection, as Wayne was one of the few people in the city who could afford all of Batman's equipment.

Questions then started to float around about the other members of the Wayne family. Had Damian Wayne, Bruce's biological son, whom Grayson had been the protector off, been Robin? Is Damian's disappearance from public life because he is dead himself? What about Tim Drake and Alfred? How were they involved?

Yet despite everything, this was still all just speculation.

And yet there was just one who knew.

It's not because he was incredibly intelligent. It's not because he snuck into the batcave and planted cameras everywhere.

He could just tell.

His name: Simon Ashford.

For as long as he could remember, the young British-American had been a huge fan of superheroes.

His mother often read stories to him about the first Green Lantern when he was younger.

This was probably down to trying to escape her young son from reality, as his father had abandoned the two when Simon was still in his infancy.

Despite this, the two were happy together.

That is, however, until Simon turned 9.

He remembered the day well.

His mother had been suffering a lot of pain and had gone to the doctor to see if he could sort anything out.

However, she hadn't expected the worst.

Terminal cervical cancer.

He remembered his mother returning home with her eyes red raw.

There, in their living room, she told him what was happening before the two embraced, crying their eyes out.

The last few months they had together were arguably some of the best they'd ever had. Since they knew she only had a few months left to live, she got the chance to do everything she'd always wanted to do.

However, as they went on, Simon could see that the cancer was finally starting to take its toll on her, as she seemed to grow weaker and weaker.

Then came that fateful day.

Most of the day seemed hazy to Simon, even now, but he still remembered the most important details.

How, in her final days, his mother had been confined to a hospital bed.

How he'd sat with her during her final hours and the heartbeat monitor beeped away.

How he'd held her hand as she slowly slipped away, uttering her final words.

"Be brave. Be strong. Remember. Always".

Finally, as she felt cold, only one sound filled the room.

_Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep._

He then remembered how hard he cried.

Even at the age of nineteen, these memories still haunted Simon.

Since then, he'd found himself under the care of numerous foster parents, each one of them trying to force their way into Simon's life to try and help him get over it.

But no matter how hard each one of them tried, they all failed.

Simon only really managed to get over it when he entered College.

At face value, people viewed Simon as a lost soul, having lost both his parents and having no siblings to talk to.

Well, none that they knew off.

Unbeknownst to them, there was someone Simon could talk to.

Some would call it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Others would call it Schizophrenia.

But Simon called it "Alan: The identical twin brother that only I can see".

Whenever Simon was lonely or wanted someone to talk to, Alan would always turn up.

During some moments of his life where he'd felt truly hopeless, Alan would always be there to make him feel better.

Ever since his mother died, Alan had stood by Simon, even when he reached college.

The two would often talk for hours on end, particularly about their favourite interests.

But _there_ was one thing they talked about most above anything else: Superheroes.

As more and more heroes appeared, an old passion for superheroes re-ignited itself in Simon.

This grew even greater when he discovered that his own city had a hero of its own: Nightwing.

As expected, he was gutted when it was announced that Dick Grayson had died.

It was then, on one Saturday afternoon, not too long after the statue had been constructed, he found himself outside city hall, looking up at the statue.

He sighed and shook his head.

"It's a damn shame". he said to himself.

He'd really wanted to meet Nightwing himself.

"Oh well. Heroes come, heroes go" he said to himself as he trudged back to his battered old Honda Civic and got in.

"It's a real pity he had to go like that." a voice said. "A guy like that deserves a better send off."

As Simon looked over, he found Alan sat in the seat next to him.

"Well, he got a freaking statue. How much better of a send off can you get?"

Alan thought about this for a moment.

"Good point" he replied. "But still. It's a shame he's gone".

"Too right. But heroes come and go. Another one will probably come around eventually".

"Actually, what's more than likely to happen is that some crazed Nightwing fanboy will become their own Nightwing and start patrolling the streets at night".

"Yeah, I'll give you that".

However, as he looked over at his brother, he noticed that Alan was giving a certain look that said "It's going to be you".

He realised what he was getting at.

"Oh no" he said, shaking his head and smiling. "Absolutely not".

"Oh come on. It only seems fitting. All you need to do is buff yourself up a bit and get the right stuff".

"And risk myself getting killed? No thank you".

"Well, it's either you do it or someone else will do it ahead of you".

The duo chatted about this all the way back to campus.

As Simon turned off the car and began heading off to his room, he took a brief moment to survey his surroundings

Despite it being a Saturday, there were many people out and about, most of them with friends.

Simon sighed.

Asides from having Alan, Simon was a complete loner.

This would have been bearable if everyone else on campus thought that he was insane.

Now, Simon knew he was far from normal. In fact, he often admitted to himself that he wasn't really all there.

But things wouldn't be so bad if people didn't constantly laugh at him behind his back.

Even as he made his way to him room, he could hear them.

"Weirdo"

"Loser"

"Schizo"

"Go back to Arkham, psycho"

As a rather rude insult came from a nearby jock, pointing and laughing, Simon was tempted to jump on him and tear him to shreds.

In fact, he probably would have done, had Alan not appeared to him at that moment, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Ignore them" he said. "They're just idiots".

A low flying pasta lunch came flying through the air before striking the back of Simon's head, covering his short blonde hair and black and red hoodie with pasta sauce.

This was swiftly followed by laughter from a nearby group.

Simon seethed with rage as he clenched his hands into fists.

"No. I'll have my chance eventually" Simon muttered through gritted teeth as he stalked off to his room, angrily wiping food off the back of his head.

* * *

As the night slowly rolled in, Simon could think of nothing more than relaxing on the couch in his room, eating snacks and watching TV, just like any other guy his age.

However, as he did so, he remembered what Alan had said to him

"All you need to do is buff yourself up a bit and get the right stuff".

Whilst Simon wasn't particularly out of shape, he probably wouldn't be winning any bodybuilding contests in this shape

However , what he certainly did have was a keen eye for technology.

Whilst he knew that becoming Nightwing would be something that would probably be the end of him, he knew deep down that Alan was right.

He knew that Chicago needed a new hero.

He shrugged.

"Maybe" he said to himself, changing over to the news channel to catch the latest report.

However, as he did so, he heard a loud explosion from somewhere nearby, causing him to jump in shock.

As he looked out of his window, he spotted a sight he had had to become accustomed to.

A riot, initiated by some of the other college students.

Not for any specific reason, just because they felt like rioting.

They'd been doing that ever since Nightwing disappeared.

Simon groaned.

"Again? Really? God, do these guys have any respect for anything? Oh well. Perhaps things won't be as bad as last time".

* * *

As Sunday came around, the full extent of the riot damage was revealed.

It wasn't less than before.

In fact, it was much worse.

Signs had been torn down, windows had been smashed, tons of stuff had been nicked.

But that's not what had gotten Simon angry.

What had really gotten Simon angry was the large phallic symbol one of the rioters had sprayed on the back of the Dick Grayson memorial.

This confirmed his suspicions: they had no respect for anything.

As the news footage rolled, he was sat on his couch, angrily wolfing down his cereal.

"Disgraceful, isn't it?" called Alan from the bathroom.

"Tell me about it". Replied Simon through a mouthful of cereal.

"Still, they're asking for someone to go down there and kick their arses".

Simon groaned, swallowing his mouthful.

"For the last time Alan, I. Will. Not. Become..."

However, as his brother appeared on the couch next to him, he stopped.

Since Alan originated from Simon's mind, he could tap into his innermost thoughts.

In this case, Alan was wearing a black costume with a red streak across the chest, which ran along his arms.

On his face was a custom made black domino mask.

He was dressed as Nightwing.

"Oh come now. There's no need to be like that. You and I both know what you truly desire. You wish to pick up where he left off. Besides, I can't do it. I'm not real".

"You and I also both know that I could never hope to be as good as he was".

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean you can't be good in your own right. At the end of the day, its your decision to make, brother. So what's it going to be? You going to take the plunge?"

Simon had to think long and hard about this.

The thought of him becoming Nightwing certainly did seem tempting.

He could also see it being the end of him if he took it on.

But there was still something in the back of his mind that told him to do it. To pick up where the original Nightwing left off.

He made his decision.

He got off the couch and headed over to the small computer in the corner.

After booting it up, he logged onto the internet.

"So, have you made up your mind?"

"See for yourself"

Alan got off the couch and came over, looking at the screen.

On screen, was a Google page.

In the search box was typed: _Nightwing costume._

Alan smiled.

"Good man" he said, high fiving his brother.

* * *

The last couple of weeks had been tough on Simon.

His work in college was slowly becoming increasing harder.

It was also a lot harder to be able to prevent himself from murdering the next person who pissed him off.

However, whilst all this was going on, he was bettering himself, trying to get himself into shape before the rest of his equipment arrived.

He'd even done something he'd never thought he would do: get a gym membership.

Whilst he had been reluctant at first, this had paid of greatly, with Simon managing to obtain a better fitness level than ever before.

Eventually, when all his stuff had arrived, Simon went over and checked everything, ticking a list of everything he'd either ordered or made himself.

_2 custom made shock sticks, built from old police batons and tasers._

Check.

_1 custom made fighting staff, complete with electrical attachment._

Check.

1 hand built grapnel gun.

Check

18 hand built Wingdings.

Simon quickly counted.

Check.

1 Nightwing costume...

Simon looked over.

His costume was lying neatly folded on his desk, with his mask on top.

This wasn't just a cheap replica, either. This looked exactly like the real thing, complete was red stripe across the chest and down the arms.

"Well, here goes nothing".

He began to pull on the costume.

Finally, he was all suited up, completing his attire by placing his mask on his face.

He went into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror.

Asides from his blonde hair, Simon looked just like the original Nightwing.

Alan appeared next to him, wearing the same outfit.

"Well my friend, it's time you introduced the city to Nightwing 2.0"

"Too right".

Simon quickly equipped his gear before stealthily climbing out of the window, with Alan following after him.

* * *

"Well, some night this is" Simon thought to himself.

Despite what had happened a few weeks before, the city seemed to have decided to take a break on this night of all nights.

No matter how hard Simon and Alan looked, they couldn't find anything of note happening.

No assaults. No drug dealers. Nothing.

The duo found themselves perched on a rooftop, watching over the area outside city hall.

Thankfully the phallic symbol had been washed off the statue.

"I never realised how good that statute looks by streetlight".

"Same. You know, I can't help but wonder what he would think about us coming out here like this.".

"He would probably say we're crazy, but he'd be happy that someone was continuing the Nightwing legacy".

"Yeah, I hear that".

Simon was seriously considering calling it a night by this point.

However, before he could make that decision, he spotted a large truck coming round the corner.

Simon didn't really know why, but something seemed off about it.

Mainly due to the lack of markings on the side.

He quickly looked down at the number plate.

It was a Brazilian registration.

"Nightwing sense tingling?" Asked Alan.

"Yep. Follow me" Simon replied as he began to follow the truck from the rooftops.

The duo proceeded to tail the lorry for what felt like miles before it eventually arrived at the city's port.

Much to Nightwing's intrigue, a small boat with one single shipping container had arrived.

Scattered around the area of the port were about a dozen men waiting around and chatting. Some in English, some more in what sounded like Russian.

Eager to see what was going on, Simon and Alan quickly entered the shipping facility, hiding behind a stack of empty shipping containers to get a better look.

Finally, the shipping container on the boat was opened and the duo could finally see what this was all about.

As the captain of the ship disembarked from the boat, he was followed by several females, many of them barely any older than Simon was, wearing next to nothing and looking like they really didn't want to be here.

It was a human trafficking operation.

Simon decided to end it, clambering up the stack of containers.

"You know, I think its way past their bedtime!" He yelled out.

Everyone below looked up at the vigilante.

The men were shocked and horrified.

"It's Nightwing!"

"How?! I thought he was dead!"

"Ah, its probably just some kid in a Nightwing costume."

"Kill him anyway! We can't let him leave!"

The men proceeded to produce firearms from their belts, aiming them at the vigilante.

However, as they began to fire, Nightwing dodged away, escaping into a maze of shipping containers, with the men in hot pursuit after him.

The twelve soon found themselves separated.

Easy pickings for Nightwing.

The first one was caught off guard when Nightwing silently snuck up behind him, rendering him unconscious with one punch to the back of the neck.

Whilst the next two were able to find each other, they were unable to stop Nightwing wing from coming down from on high and knocking them both out by bashing their heads against the ground.

The fourth was suddenly rendered unconscious when Nightwing side swiped him, bashing his head against a container.

The fifth, sixth and seventh were rendered unconscious by Nightwing doing some on the job practice with throwing his Wingdings.

This left just five men left, who eventually were able to regroup back at the dock where the ship was, with the girls hiding aboard.

"Oh god. What are we going to do?" one said, worriedly.

"We're screwed!" Another wailed.

"No! We're going to make it out of this" another said. "All we need to do is wait until he appears. When he does, drop him".

"You're forgetting something!" Nightwing called out, seemingly from everywhere. "You're forgetting the part what I kick your arses!"

Suddenly, he dropped down from the nearby shipping crane, pulling out his staff before bashing two more over the head and knocking them out.

He then engaged in close combat with the largest of the three remaining men before he could level his gun.

Whilst Nightwing had drastically improved his fighting skills before taking to the streets, the guy he was fighting was still fairly tough.

As the two grappled with each other, one of the other two took the opportunity to charge at the vigilante, unable to successfully aim at him.

But Nightwing had easily anticipated something like this.

Just before the man reached him, Nightwing swung his staff, landing an allmighty whack to the man's crotch.

As he fell to his knees, yelling in pain, Nightwing then simply picked up the guy before throwing him at the second guy, the force of the impact rendering the two unconscious.

Nightwing returned to battling with the final guy.

As they traded blows, Nightwing knew it would only be a matter of time before the man went down, but he wasn't going to give up easily.

As they fought, they then heard the sound of police sirens getting closer.

As Nightwing tried to swing his staff around again, the man caught it.

"You fight well for some punk kid who thinks he's Nightwing" he growled as they struggled.

Simon replied with three simple words.

"I AM NIGHTWING!"

Suddenly, the vigilante landed a hard kick to one of his legs, fracturing the bone.

This then allowed him to work his staff free before swinging it around and rendering him unconscious.

Not wanting to hang around, he quickly took off just as the police arrived.

As he quickly scaled up the side of a nearby building, his brother reappeared, with the duo sharing a high five.

"Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss" Simon said to himself, satisfied with his work.


	2. Making Waves

**Chapter 2: Making Waves**

_Wayne Manor_

"Good evening, Gotham, this is Rica Gibson reporting. A few months ago, the superhero community was left in shock, following the death of Dick Grayson AKA: Nightwing. However, it now appears that the Nightwing legacy has just turned a page. Last night, the Chicago City Police Department was alerted by an anonymous member of the public to a disturbance in the shipping port. However, upon arriving in the shipping port, they found what had been the aftermath of the brawl, with many of the men left behind embroiled in a human trafficking operation when they had been attacked. When questioned, one of the men described their attacker as a tall, young man, dressed in a red and black jumpsuit, matching the description of Nightwing."

Tim Drake couldn't believe what he was watching.

Only a few months ago, Dick Grayson, his surrogate brother, had died. However, the news was now running a story about how Nightwing was now back in Chicago.

He remembered back to when he had first met Dick Grayson, many years ago when The Flying Graysons were touring with Haly's circus. He remembered back to when he had figured out the identities of both Batman and Robin as Bruce and Dick and how, after much persuasion, Batman finally decided to train him as a vigilante.

Tim then thought about Bruce.

The last year hadn't been good for him. Over the last twelve months, he'd lost Damian, Talia and now Dick. Tim, Barbara, Commissioner Gordon and Alfred were the only allies he had left outside of the Justice League.

Come to think of it, he hadn't left the cave in a while. He only ever seemed to leave the cave when out on patrol as Batman.

Tim was actually starting to become quite concerned for his surrogate father, as was the league. They all knew that Batman was a tough cookie, but they were still concerned with his mental well-being. Any other person would've been destroyed at losing so many loved ones in a year.

Tim eventually put all the thought back into his head for the moment. He needed to suit up and find Beast Boy. They were planning on a new Teen Titans team.

But before then...

He headed over to the phone, dialling in a number.

Eventually, someone answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey Barb, Tim here".

"Oh hey, Tim. What's up?"

"Nothing much, it's just...well...are you watching the news?"

"No. Why? Is there something important?"

"See for yourself".

The sound of shuffling around was heard for the next few moments.

Then, finally, the sound of the news broadcast could be heard.

Barbara didn't say a word before finally...

"What?!"

"I know, right?"

"This is amazing! Has Bruce heard the news, yet?"

"Knowing him, he's probably watching it down in the cave at the moment".

"How is he?"

"He's fine, but he hasn't been out of that cave for days"

"I'm worried about him, Tim"

"Don't worry, Barbara. He'll be fine. You just wait and see".

"Yeah. I hope so. Anyway, I'd better go. I'm about to head out on patrol"

"Same. I'm currently in the process of setting up another group of titans with Garfield"

"Do you think this Nightwing would be interested?"

"Probably not. Knowing our luck, he'd probably be all like "My work in Chicago is too important" when we ask him"

"It would still be good, though"

"Yeah".

* * *

For Simon, his second night as Nightwing couldn't have gone better.

It appeared that even mentioning that Nightwing had come back was more than enough for the scum of the city to run and hide.

The mere return of Nightwing had caused the crime rate in the city to fall significantly.

However, there were still people that needed Nightwing's boot to their faces.

Over the last few hours, he and Alan had been chasing up a lead surrounding the human trafficking operation that they had unearthed the last night.

After what had felt like hours of hunting around for clues, they had finally come up with a name.

Scott Griffin.

After a a few more hours, they were also able to find his location: a large house not too far outside the city.

"That place sticks out like a sore thumb" Simon had said to himself. "Further proving my theory that bad guys never figure things out".

Now, he and Alan were both hiding in a bush at the end of a long garden, looking over at the house.

There was only one major problem standing in their way: the house was littered with armed guards.

"So how do you suppose you're going to go about this?"

"Simple. The garden has a slight incline before reaching the house. We could use that and the cover of darkness to sneak up there. I can then knock out the two guards guarding the back door, then we grapple onto the roof, drop down onto the balcony and take down Griffin".

"Sounds like a plan. Alright, let's do this"

Slowly, the duo slipped out of the bush and began commando crawling along the ground.

As the eventually reached the top of the ridge, Nightwing readied two Wing-dings.

Suddenly, he leapt up, throwing the two Wing-dings at the two guards.

The guards had enough time to pull out their weapons, but not enough time to dodge out of the way, being rendered unconscious as the Wing-dings struck them.

Picking themselves up, Simon and Alan then pulled out their grapnels, grappling up to the roof.

Below them was a balcony that lead directly into Scott's bedroom.

The duo, waited right above the entrance, listening in to see if Scott was there.

What they heard was the sound of bed springs creaking.

"Oh. Eww" Alan muttered, realising what was going on. "You really want to go in there, Simon?"

"I don't exactly have much in the way of a choice" he replied.

Nightwing then hopped off the edge of the roof before rapidly spinning round and grabbing hold of the edge of the roof, allowing himself to swing towards the balcony door, sending him crashing through the window.

As suspected, Scott Griffin with sat in the bed with an alarmed look on his face when he recognised Nightwing, covering his privates with the bed sheets.

The young woman next to him was equally as shocked.

Nightwing heard shouts coming from below.

"You'd better get this wrapped up fast" Alan told him as he entered the room.

"Scott Griffin. Your time is up" Nightwing said to him, advancing towards the crime boss.

"LIKE HELL IT IS!" He roared, producing a handgun from under a pillow and aiming it at the vigilante.

It was easily knocked out of his hand by one of Nightwing's Wing-Dings.

He soon found himself out of bed and up in the air, with Nightwing holding him by his throat.

"W-what do you want?" Asked Scott, now quite frightened.

"To bring you in" Nightwing replied. "I know you're one of this city's most active crime bosses. I also know that amongst other things, you were the one behind the human trafficking operation that would've take place last night had I not showed up".

"Please! I swear I didn't want to do it! I was only doing what my bosses said to do!"

"Well, you still did- wait. You have bosses?!"

"Oh crap. I shouldn't have said that."

"Well that's just great!" Alan said exasperated, throwing his hands up. "We dig out one anthill only to find that there's an even freaking bigger one not too far away!"

"Alright then, who might your bosses be?"

"No way! I ain't saying! If you really want to know, you're going to have to find them yourself!"

"Very well then, I will" Nightwing replied, noticing Scott's mobile phone on the bedside cabinet.

He snapped off the back and pulled out the SD card as the sounds of rapid footsteps got closer.

This was followed by a rapid jiggling of the locked door.

"How are you even here?" Demanded Scott. "You're supposed to be dead."

"Dick Grayson may be dead, but Nightwing is immortal. Oh, and one more thing"

"What?"

Gunshots could be heard outside the door as the guards tried to shoot out the lock.

"Sweet dreams, sunshine"

BAM!

Nightwing landed a rock hard punch, rendering him unconscious before dropping him back down.

He and Alan then bolted across the room and leapt off the balcony just as the guards were able to break the lock and force their way into the room.

The duo bolted down to the end of the garden before leaping over the hedging and the low brick wall into the garden next door.

"So, what do you make of that?" Alan asked as they continued leaping from garden to garden. "One of the most active crime bosses in the city is, himself, a pawn for crime bosses"

"Ever heard of the Injustice League?"

"Of course. They're that group of the world's most dangerous supervillains".

"I'm getting the distinct feeling that it could be something along those lines"

"Well, seeing as a criminal version of the Justice League arrived from an alternate dimension a few months back, that wouldn't surprise me. But still, there's no telling what we could be walking in to."

"Good thing we have this, then" Simon replied, producing the SD card. "We can look through this when we get back to campus. Whatever's on here could give us a few leads"

"Either that or just a few hookers. Either one would be good in my books"

Simon chuckled, concealing the SD card again.

"Always carrying a perverse sense of humour with you, Mister Ashford"

"I wonder where I got it from, Mister Ashford" Alan replied with a wry grin on his face.

Just then, they heard the sounds of several police sirens going past, presumably to the safe house.

"Well, there goes the cavalry"

* * *

"Greetings, brothers and sister. Now, whilst I would usually say that things are going well, recently, things haven't been so. As you already know, one of our trafficking operations was halted last night. However, things have only gotten worse. Mere minutes before you arrived, I got word through from one of our informants that one of our key agents, Scott Griffin has been found and apprehended by the Chicago Police Department."

"WHAT?! HOW?!"

"According to our informant...the Nightwing is responsible for this. Not only that, but he is now aware of the existence of our order".

"Well then, Brother Griffin deserved to get arrested! He broke his oath of secrecy!"

"That's not the point. The point is that now the Nightwing is aware of us, he could be working to destroy our order".

"We'll have to disband the order! I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that doesn't want to be discovered!"

"That won't be necessary, Sister Buckley. Whilst I do indeed feel worried for the order's safety, I have already managed to arrange a plan. The Nightwing may appear to be powerful, but deep down, he is only human."

"So what do you suppose we do?"

"Simple. We have contacts across the globe. From them, we can get in contact with an assassin of our choice to...take care of Nightwing".

"An assassin? Which one?"

"Only the finest assassin on the planet".

"I second that motion"

"All those in favour?"

"AYE!"

"Very well then. If all goes well, Nightwing only has a matter of a few days left to live".


End file.
